


remade in the image

by arcanamagnus



Category: Transformers: Victory
Genre: Friendship, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Trans Characters, which you might not catch unless i tell you bc robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27353686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanamagnus/pseuds/arcanamagnus
Summary: A spot has opened at one of the aerial assault triads being inducted into the Decepticon army soon, and Deathsaurus chooses to give the twins currently serving as cargo pilots an opportunity.Soon after, Hellbat gets a surprise to assuage his nerves over reaching maturity and the future of his friendships.Written for Rare TF Pair Week Day 2: Reputation
Relationships: Hellbat & Leozack
Kudos: 1
Collections: Rare TF Pair Week 2020





	remade in the image

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in continuity with yesterday's fic, "lost and found", two vorns later. Gives further context to the 'zack twins' situation, as well other stuff.
> 
> It's a little disjointed, but I hope it's fine.

The Airzack Project’s failure nearly six vorns ago had been a great loss to the Decepticon cause, depriving them of their intended battle transport capable of doubling as a large fighter, Deathsaurus remembered. A powerful Point One Percenter spark, unstable to the point of mitosis and giving rise to equally unstable twins. The two Airzacks had the general shape and size of fighter jets, though with some engineering cues from their intended form and a slightly larger build than usual, but had remained among the base’s freighters for the sake of convenience, of not wasting the preparations made for the ready-forged Airzack.

Leozack and Lyzack, as they had chosen to call themselves, technically had already fledged, having reached maturity and been assigned formal duties almost one vorn ago, but it was clear that even their abnormal physical strength was not enough to have them performing adequately as cargo vehicles. It was lucky, then, that one of the triads of fighter jets fledging this stellar cycle had lost one of its members to an accident — overeager children, daring to venture into the wild without weaponry —, and that like this he could solve two problems in one fell swoop. One would remain, still, but Esmeral had her own plans for them.

The decision had been made already, discussed over with his dear wife and plotted into their statistics and strategies. As soon as the two returned from hauling energon to the spark lab, he had sent a summon for them to come see him, for the first time since they were freshly hatched.

But for some reason they had decided to make him wait.

* * *

Leozack held in his panic the best as he could as Lyzack finally managed to get him under control after they received the General’s summons. He was still sure they’d be offlined, finally officially regarded as useless and too wretched to live, but Lyzack insisted they face their fate with honour, as much as she had her own anxieties regarding their performance.

General Deathsaurus was sitting huge and bored on the large throne at the heart of the central palace adorning the Guard base, and his gaze felt like one thousand pinpricks where it fell upon the two of them.  _ Offlined, for sure. _

“Lyzack and Leozack of Guard,” the booming, grating voice addressed them, “Your performance has been lacking as of late.”  _ That was what he’d been fearing to hear. _ “And thus I have chosen to reassign you.”

_ What? _

Lyzack subtly kicked him, and he realised he had spoken out loud.

“Sorry, Sir. We would be glad to know how we may serve the Empire from now on.” He saved, best as he could.

“Five new fighter jet squadrons are fledging this vorn. The one reaching the age of five vorns this stellar cycle is missing a member. I would like to reassign Lyzack to serve as their third member.”

_ Wait.  _ Leozack knew about this. Hellbat, the friend they shouldn’t have, was a fighter jet, and  _ he _ was fledging this stellar cycle. This was a fantastic opportunity, really, but what would happen to  _ him? _

“Sir!” Lyzack exclaimed, flustered, “I am not— I am afraid I am not well-suited to teamwork, sir. I prefer to work alone.”

He contemplated stopping her, still afraid they would be slagged, but Deathsaurus continued.

“My other offer was for the remaining one of you to be reassigned to Esmeral’s special task force. Since your specifications are almost the same, I figure it would not bother her to receive you as a trainee rather than Leozack.” He looked down directly at Leozack this time, and a suppressed shiver ran down his back. “Do you have similar objections, Leozack?”

“I do not, Sir! I would be happy to serve within an aerial assault triad. However,”  _ might as well shoot his shot, _ “Our frames are not battle grade, and would benefit from being reformatted into standard, General Deathsaurus.”

The beast hummed, as if in consideration.

“You shall have it then, a reformat for each of you.” The General smiled. “And I shall have my enhanced ordinance warriors.”

* * *

Hellbat was nervous. In the quartexes preceding his and Guyhawk’s fledging, he’d not been able to establish contact with his friends even a single time. He’d understood that they were busier now, had been for the past vorn or so, since their own fledging, but they usually kept him updated on their work schedule so he’d know when it was safe to visit. 

It had been radio silence for three whole quartexes. The last he remembered seeing them was a couple orns before Rayblight died. Not that he was particularly affected by the loss, but his own inability to feel grief had bothered him, and he wanted to talk it out. There was also the looming worry that he’d be declared redundant, the uncertainty over his own future, but he knew he and Guyhawk were too valuable as outliers to be scrapped completely.

Guyhawk had been an option. They were a friend of sorts — a birth-assigned friend, really —, and, while they didn’t exactly listen or care, they were accessible, always around. Of course, turning to Guyhawk always involved on some level consenting to unnecessarily mean words and rough handling, but he had scarcely anyone else to rely upon.

“Maybe your secret boyfriend is breaking up with you? Like in a very oblique way?” Guyhawk had suggested the night before their formal induction into the Decepticon army, as they laid on their neighbouring mats failing to fall asleep.

Hellbat buried his face in a pillow, mumbling a muffled “He’s not my boyfriend”, but nevertheless being forced to consider that maybe Leozack and Lyzack  _ did _ grow tired of him. Lyzack had always been a little reticent regarding him, more closed off, and maybe he had hugged her one too many times for comfort? Coming up with a solid reason why  _ Leozack _ could’ve stopped wanting to be his friend was harder, and that was comforting, but the insecurity did keep him from sleeping well that night either way.

He arrived at his inauguration in the main hangar two breems late — Guyhawk didn’t even  _ bother _ to kick him awake like they usually did — and without refuelling. He didn’t mind the heads turning towards him as he awkwardly shuffled to where the Air Commodore was giving Guyhawk their orders in the middle of the room.

As he approached, he noticed the two of them weren’t alone, that there was a third jetformer standing taller than either of them with cute cat ears and a mane there as well and unbridled confusion ran through his mind until  _ that _ head turned to him and he saw  _ Leozack _ — in a body so alike and so  _ different _ from the one he’d had the last time he’d seen him — smile a fanged grin at him as he waved, turning their superior officer’s attention to him as well.

“You’re late, cadet.” Air Commodore Voltstrike chided him, “But by your reaction I assume your new wingmate’s reputation precedes him.”

Guyhawk’s snide laughter was in no way helpful as Hellbat fumbled an apology.

After they were done having their new duties assigned and being congratulated by every active duty flyer in the brigade, they were allowed to stand at ease with each other while setting their personal schedules, and Hellbat couldn’t help himself but ignore it in favour of tackle-hugging Leozack with his full body weight. 

Leozack did not struggle to catch him, laughing softly all the while. The feeling of their bodies pressed together had changed; Hellbat's hard angles no longer slipped over Leozack's smooth roundness, now replaced with hard angles of his own; they just fit, like a stack of cubes in a pantry. Leozack’s new look was amazing, even if it differed minorly from his original one, and he seemed to carry himself much more confidently in it. Not that Leozack ever did not carry himself confidently, but there was a marked lack of the signs of tension that Hellbat had learnt to identify in the two vorns of their friendship.

He couldn’t even begin to formulate whatever he wanted to say; “I missed you”, “You look beautiful” and “We’re wingmates?” all mixed up into a keening whine as Leozack squeezed him back with just a taste of that Point One Percenter strength.

“Hate to interrupt the touching reunion, but I have to ask,” Guyhawk interjected, parting then with one hand, “This the secret boyfriend who ghosted you for three quartexes?”

“I’m not—,” Leozack started at the same moment Hellbat groaned indignantly, but shook himself out of it and replied to Guyhawk with a grin, “Had to undergo a lot of procedures to be able to stand with you today, birdie. A lot you might have heard about me might not be in effect anymore.”

That had been a curious thing to say, and it stayed in Hellbat’s mind even as Guyhawk and Leozack fell into friendlier, boastful conversation and after they had to go back to real work. It wouldn’t do to ask all that he wanted to publicly, he felt, so he let it go for the afternoon, feeling out their newly forming trine dynamic.

It felt like it could be good, for once.

After their shift though, Hellbat chose to walk Leozack back to his quarters, which were still in the freighter area, marking the first time he was not doing so clandestinely. It was nice, being able to talk without modulating their voices low enough nobody could hear them, to just air their thoughts about how the Air Commodore smelled weird or how Leozack had found Guyhawk without the worry of being caught.

As they reached Leozack's door, Hellbat quietly asked if he could come in, and Leozack allowed him. The room was still the same it had been the last time he'd seen it, but its other occupant was not. Someone he assumed was Lyzack was sitting on her half of the bed, looking up from her datapad to greet them with a slow blink of acknowledgement. Her frame no longer matched Leozack's, much more streamlined than either their original design or Leozack's own new look, and had a more ornate look to it befitting her chosen directive. He greeted her appropriately, a happy little wave, and sat with Leozack on his side of the bed.

"Is everything alright?" was not what he'd expected Leozack to ask him, a curious tilt to his head.

"I- Yes! Everything is fine, this was a very nice forging day, I just," Hellbat bit his lip under his mask, "I wanted to know more about your new look. You look like you feel better."

"I do. This feels like a good body to be in," he grimaced a little at the end, "Appearance-wise at least. Our internal organs situation is still too risky to reengineer, so a lot of the restrictions are still in place."

"Oh." That had been what he'd been thinking about. He never quite understood the particulars of his friends' disabilities, but he knew the malformations caused them pain and other unpleasant symptoms, and had assumed a reformat might have helped. Shows how little he knew.

"They got us on regular medication at least, so I won't keel over on you, if that's what you're worried about."

"That's not- That's great though, I know you needed it." His hand twitched at the crook of his arm as he drew into himself, but Leozack took his hand into his own and squeezed, soft, encouraging. "I guess I was just worried. About you. About us being friends."

"We're still friends." Leozack reassured him. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you stuff in advance, but I wouldn't- I wouldn't just stop talking to you."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Hellbat had no reason not to believe him.


End file.
